The Eiffel Tower. Le Tour Eiffel.
While it's not Paris's oldest or prettiest landmarks, it certainly is the most imposing. No matter how many times you visit France, when you fly into Charles de Gaulle and catch your first glimpse of the Tower from the air, it takes your breath away and puts a smile on your face. An architectural marvel for its strength and resilience, the Tower is an international icon for all things French and the most visited historical monument in the world. Residents of Paris won't get within a kilometer of the base, given the year-round horde of tourists, but from afar it remains a source of great pride and indeed, identity.
Twice a week, I have the privilege of teaching yoga within a stone's throw of the Tower. The timing couldn't be better. The class is held during the nightly light show, which is a display of brilliant lights in various patterns running up and down, from the base to the crown...
You see where I'm going here. The other night, as I was teaching about the nadis, the energy channels that run on either side and through the spine, in my periphery I could see the light show in the Tower illustrating the Sushumna, Ida, and Pingala nadis - as if on cue! The Sushumna light went to the top, while the other two wound around the middle and stopped before the top and big, evenly spaced spotlights ran up the center came on and shone bright and...Chakras in the Eiffel Tower?!
As I paused, allowing this unbelievable site to wash over me, feeling chills on my spine, the lights changed to another pattern entirely; more like blinking Christmas tree decorations and less like energy channels.
And there it went. In the time that it took to take one long inhale and one extended exhale, the Eiffel Tower decided to by my PowerPoint, my teaching tool, and I felt like the luckiest yoga teacher in the world!
The Spine of Paris.
